Say Darling, Hey Maybe
by FierySprites
Summary: There were four different Wild Cards and yet, only three of them had their own teams with them. The solution for this discrepancy was clear: give each Arisato part of their own SEES, and call it a day! (To say this was awkward for SEES was… an understatement. But the cards have been drawn, and so they'll have to deal with the hands.) [PQ2-centric One-Shot Collection]


**Say Darling, Hey Maybe**

_**Chapter 1  
**__Pull the Trigger_

(Uploaded on June 27, 2019)

* * *

**Summary:** Ren and his currently-minimized team of Phantom Thieves encounter a peculiar quartet of people, upon reaching the third floor of their current labyrinth – and find that all four of them house the ability to summon a Persona. Obligatory introductions ensue.

**Notes:** This one-shot collection is set during the events of _Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth._ For the purposes of this fic, Minato's side of SEES (and the Investigation Team) remember the events of _Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth,_ and Minako's side hasn't experienced the game at all. Spoilers for the first _Persona Q_ may appear in later chapters of this fic.

This fic is not canon to the _A Goddess in Reality_ series.

* * *

After finding the way forward on Kamoshidaman's second floor…

**Ren: **_(Let's get real, what's your deal? D'you still believe you will ever be able to take us down~?)_

* * *

**Theater District  
Kamo City – Second Avenue**

The crew of Phantom Thieves—Ren, Ryuji, Morgana, Ann, Yusuke, and Akechi—rushed down to the third 'floor'(-slash-avenue) of the movie, their weapons very much at the ready. "Okay," Ryuji said, his knees bent and his club in his hand, _"bring it on!"_—only to be greeted by empty space and silence where there should have been awaiting chaos.

"Wait, what the—" It was comical, how dismayed he seemed to look at the sight. "There's nothing here!?"

Though, Ren felt somewhat the same way. The situation was simultaneously bizarre and harrowing enough: trapped in a mysterious cinema with four locks on the entrance, forced to go through a movie that—for some god only knows reason—cast _Kamoshida_ as its superhero star, fighting to rescue their captured teammates Makoto and Haru… it could be said that the Phantom Thieves were a little on edge compared to their usual stints infiltrating Palaces. _To be honest,_ he thought, _I was ready to bash some Shadows in with Arsene myself._ (It made the sting of losing two friends to **him** hurt a little less.)

"…something's not right," Akechi noted, putting a gloved finger to his chin. "Don't you think it's a little too quiet?"

He let the statement stand for a bit. Everyone looked around the area, keeping a good ear out for any noise in the nearby vicinity – sure enough, there was far less activity about the area than would be expected for such a bustling city. "…Crow's right," Ren noted. "You'd think there'd be more security, but… there's nothing here…"

And then, they heard it. Off in the distance, just faintly, a chorus of police sirens blared.

Ann was startled. "Whoa! Enemies!?" The assembled Phantom Thieves quickly went on high alert again, their gazes going all about the area.

"But—they're not after us!" Futaba reported, her holographic image putting a hand to her goggles. "It—It might have something to do with this reading I'm getting… What is it…!?"

"Hmm…?" Yusuke looked off into a nearby alleyway. "Hey!" he shouted, pointing a gloved finger at it. "Look over there!"

Ren took a glance—and saw an auburn-haired girl with a ponytail step out, a naginata held tightly in her hand. In front of her were a bunch of Shadows, menacingly facing her while she stood alone. She raised something to the side of her head—_What the—!? Is that a __**gun!?**_—and then pulled the trigger. Blue glass materialized from the other side of her head, and a column of blue light erupted behind her, coming to form… _a __**Persona!?**_

The very-clearly-a-Persona—adorned with a metallic body, long orange hair, and a lyre attached to its back—gathered up a helping of Agi and threw at a Lying Hablerie, sending it staggering to the ground. The sight of it was more than a little mesmerizing.

…_it's not as cool as Arsene._

(Yeah, he certainly had his priorities straight.)

"Wh-Who's that girl!?" Ryuji exclaimed, at his typical volume levels. "She's getting attacked by Shadows!"

"Isn't that… a Persona?" Ann realized. Indeed, though the construct was fading fast, it didn't take a genius to decipher exactly what it was, so long as they knew what the cognitive world was. "Who could she be?"

"Maybe she's the girl Theodore mentioned to us," Akechi theorized.

"If I recall correctly, he was looking for a high schooler—a female who wore headphones," Yusuke remembered, his eyes closed and his arms crossed. "All the details he provided us match up."

"She's not the only one here!" Futaba voiced. "I'm getting multiple readings—they might be Persona-users, too!" Ren activated his Third Eye—and sure enough, he could see the outline of three other (human!) figures, walking out of the alleyway to join the girl: a tough-looking guy with a beanie, a spirited girl who prominently wore a pink sweater jacket—a brown-haired somber _child…!?_

Disregarding their ages… "If that's the case, then we can't just leave them alone!" Morgana proclaimed.

Ren smirked. "You've got that right. C'mon, everyone—let's help 'em out, and do it in style!"

Without hesitation, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts rushed in to aid the four. _I guess Arsene's gonna see some action after all!_

"An army of masked people!?" the pink-clothed girl yelped. "What the heck's going on!?"

"Don't tell me they're reinforcements!" the auburn-haired girl groaned. "They look strong, too…!"

"Hell no!" Ryuji replied. "We ain't your enemy!"

"They're right," the beanie-wearing boy stated. "I don't think a Shadow would ever be caught dead in _those_ ridiculous costumes. Or all the other 'people' here, for that matter."

"You're just jealous that you don't have anything as cool as our outfits," Ren teased, pulling a crimson glove downward.

The somber child, notably, was staring at Ren's incredibly confident posture and intricately fanciful clothes—and turned away, a blush light up his cheeks. _Bingo._ "I—I have no idea what you're talking about…" he denied.

"Oh, we don't have time for this!" Ann interrupted. She looked directly at the auburn-haired girl and said, "Uh, you there! You're friends with Theodore, right?"

She jolted, her mouth dropping a little. "H-Huh!? You know Theo!?"

"That 'Theo' guy, huh…?" The beanie-wearing boy's eyes narrowed. "Hey, Arisato—I don't have to be worried about who you're interacting with, right—?"

"We'll explain things later! We gotta take care of these guys first!" Morgana interjected, his scimitar out in a battle stance. The Bribed Fuzz—and suddenly summoned Scarlet Turret—awaited. "Let's go, Joker!"

Ren nodded. He reached for his mask, as did the other Phantom Thieves, and let it burn in a brilliantly blue fire. A black-winged demon, decorated with a black top hat and a red olden times suit, emerged from his consciousness, black chains whipping out from his coat.

"No way…!" the pink-clothed girl gaped.

"Is that…?" the beanie-wearing boy questioned.

Both Ren and his Persona grinned savagely.

_They'll never see it coming._

"**Arsene! **_**Ravage them!"**_

* * *

One Immunity Barrier-focused battle later…

**Ren: **_(It's gonna suck, dealing with that while we're here…)_

* * *

"Phew…" The auburn-haired girl wiped some sweat from her forehead. "Looks like we're saved, everybody!"

The beanie-wearing boy scoffed. "We could've handled things ourselves, but… I guess you people aren't all that bad." He put away his heavy hammer—_Haru would probably like this guy,_ Ren pondered; _that hammer really reminds me of her axe_—and aloofly edged closer to his kohai (presumably). "I didn't think we'd find other Persona-users here, though – especially not with clothes like _those._ Mitsuru would have a stroke upon seeing 'em…"

"Hey, don't be rude, Shinjiro-senpai!" The girl pouted at her companion, getting all up in his face. _I get the feeling she's rather fond of him. _"They were generous enough to help us out! They're a bit unusual, and they've got that cartoony cat with 'em—" _("I'm not a cat!"_ Morgana instinctively replied.) "—but you could be a little nicer, at least!"

"Tch…" 'Shinjiro-senpai' looked away. "Just sayin' what I think of 'em, that's all…"

"I didn't think we'd find others like us, either!" Ryuji responded. "I mean—I _guess_ that we couldn't have been the only ones out there, swatting lies in the making, but… it's still effin' crazy!"

("'Effin'?" the somber child muttered, sounding confused by the blond brute's vocabulary. "Is that a euphemism for something…?"

"Shhhh—don't listen to him, Ken-kun!" the pink-clothed girl insisted. "Jeez, he kind of reminds of Junpei…")

"To think that there are additional Persona-users here…" Yusuke mused. "I sense that there is a mysterious fate linking us."

"Fancy way of putting things, Fox," Ren remarked, an eyebrow visibly raised.

"Speaking of fancy…" the auburn-haired girl chimed in. "Those masks are really something else! They're so elaborate, I thought you guys were more enemies at first!"

"Ahahaha…" Ann tersely chuckled, gazing down at her own leather catsuit. "Y-Yeah, I guess these _do_ look pretty weird from other people's perspective…"

"I think they're very stylish, actually," Ren grinned.

"No kidding…" the pink-clothed girl said. "Admittedly, they are full of personality—kind of like the outfits Minako keeps forcing us to wear." She shuddered. "Those High-Cut Armors are way too revealing…"

"They weren't that bad, Yukari!" the auburn-haired girl—Minako—protested. "Sure, they showed a bit of a skin, but they were pretty sturdy! Even Mitsuru-senpai wore one!"

"And I'm still not sure how you got her to do that…"

Nervously, the brown-haired child—Ken, apparently—asked his elder, "U-Umm… S-Shinjiro-san… Wh-What exactly are they talking about…?"

Shinjiro sighed, putting a palm onto his forehead. "I don't wanna know…"

"…is it me, or do they act a lot like our team does?" Morgana observed, watching the back-and-forth between each of the non-Phantom Thief Persona-users. Indeed, there was most certainly an untold number of quirks to them. It was similar to how Ann couldn't act to save her life, or how Yusuke was prone to artistically examining his surroundings (and artistically declaring 'I'm hungry' in the most flowery way possible).

The edge of Ren's lips tipped upward. "They'll fit in well with the rest of us, I think," he opined. _And when we get Makoto and Haru back, all the better._

"Oh yeah!" Minako realized. "About something you said a moment ago—you know Theo!?"

"That's right," Akechi assured her—"although, we've only met him quite recently, so we don't know him that well, per se."

The auburn-haired girl looked absolutely relieved. "I see… I'm glad Theo's safe," she said. "We suddenly got separated while we were in the Velvet Room, so I'd grown worried about him."

"Likewise, he seemed worried about you," the detective collaborated. "I hope you'll be reunited with him soon."

She nodded. "Mm-hm—thanks!" And then she remembered something else: "Oh, wait—I haven't introduced myself yet! Silly me!" ("How do you forget to do that…?" Ken wondered.) "I'm **Minako Arisato**—second-year at Gekkoukan High, and the field leader of SEES! Hope we manage to get along with each other!" Her smile, Ren noted, was practically brimming with charm— Charm that was indescribably Bewitching, if he were to quantify it (a notable contrast to his own Debonair-Level Charm). _She labeled herself a __**leader**__—so perhaps, she's a…_

Yusuke nodded. "Some sort of fate must've led our paths to cross," he noted, "and I must say—it is a fine pleasure to meet you."

"SEES, huh…?" Ren put a hand to his own chin, much like Akechi did earlier. "Does that happen to be an acronym for anything?"

"Well, if I remember right… it stands for **Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad**."

"…an 'Execution Squad', huh…? Interesting." _What a mouthful of a title. Do I even want to know what the 'execution' in it means?_

She shrugged. "Yeah, I don't really get the name, either. Haven't gotten around to asking Mitsuru-senpai about it."

Following up on his leader's introduction, the beanie-wearing boy went next. "**Shinjiro Aragaki**. I guess I'm a third year, if you wanna get technical about it. It's nice to meet you." He struggled to find a way to finish, looking exceeding awkward as he thought. "Uhh… that's all."

A brief silence passed through the area. "…dude, that's it?" Ryuji deadpanned, a sweatdrop going down the side of his head.

"I ain't got anything else to say." _Wow—that's certainly blunt. And people at Shujin say __**I'm**__ hard to talk to…_

"Don't let his hard nature fool you!" Minako sang, leaning back and forth with her hands clasped together. "Shinjiro-senpai may look scary, but he's actually really nice! He cares a lot for his companions!" _'__And me,'_ went unsaid. "And his cooking skills are downright motherly! He even cooks meals for the whole squad!"

Shinjiro proceeded to look absolutely flustered. "Wh-Wha—!?" he yelped, blushing brightly. "H-Hey, wh-what're you tellin' 'em, Arisato!? T-Tone it down, will ya…!?"

"You shouldn't be ashamed of it, Shinjiro-senpai~!" she intoned, still spectacularly lively. "C'mon, everybody at the dorm knows about it at this point, so what's the harm?"

"Ugh…" He muttered something undecipherable to Ren's ears.

_A cook, huh? Maybe he and I should have a curry cook-off, sometime._

_(__I'd bet I'll win. Nobody can beat the Boss's recipe!)_

Next up on the New Party Member brigade… "I'm **Ken Amada**," the brown-haired child said. "I may be only a fifth-grader at Gekkoukan Elementary, but that doesn't mean you should underestimate me! I'm just as capable as anyone else!"

"You're only in fifth grade?" Ann asked, astonished again. "I—I didn't think a Persona-user could be so young…"

Akechi closed his eyes. "There must be something driving him forward, then…" he quietly mused. "Fighting Shadows isn't just any ordinary pastime."

Ren frowned. "You noticed too, huh…?" he muttered. He didn't need his Third Eye to see the fire hiding behind the child's eyes, brimming with determination that seemed almost relentless—and ready to avenge. He recognized it well; he and the other Phantom Thieves often wore it while planning out Palace Heists—Kamoshida's came to mind first, for obvious reasons. So for him, at such a young age, to be having it…

"Who cares? He's cute!" Futaba jumped into the conversation, pumping her fists in the air. "Not as cute as those Blue Brigade twins—" ("Twins…?" Minako repeated.) "—but he still looks so huggable! I can hug him, right Joker?"

The frown was promptly replaced with another trademark smirk. _At the very least, I can brighten up his day._ "Why, of course, Oracle," he replied, flourishing a hand in Ken's direction. "When we get back, you can do whatever."

And now _both_ males of SEES were flushing vibrantly, though for very different reasons.

"And that just leaves me," the pink-clothed girl said. "I'm **Yukari Takeba**. I'm also a second-year like Minako here, and I'm in the archery club."

Ann and Futaba suddenly and very visibly looked like an Agidyne luminously lit up a torch inside their heads. "Whoa!" she excitedly whispered. "That really _is_ her…! I can see where she got her posture and poses from—but… shouldn't she be a lot older by now…?"

"That's not important! What matters is that it's _her!"_ Futaba gushed. "She's more than simply her looks—her acting's totally god-tier, too! I can recite all of her lines without even having to think about it! Oh, I can't believe this…!"

Yukari was puzzled. "Huh? What are you two talking about?" she asked.

"O-Oops…" Recognizing it might be a bit awkward to answer that question, Futaba quickly dismissed, "U-Uh—I was just… talking about Reiko Kujakuin. Don't worry about it."

With that out of the way, Minako was back to leading the cross-group discussion. "Great! That's all of us! Well, all of us here right now. So, um, there's something I've been curious about, since I first saw you all…" _And here it comes,_ Ren anticipated. "Your masks aren't the only thing that stands out—your outfits… they kinda make me think of phantom thieves."

"That's not the word I would've used," Shinjiro added his own two cents, "but… they definitely don't scream lawful or anything like that."

Predictably, Ryuji was the first to react. "Ohhhh shit, this is bad…!" he cursed. "Did they already figure out who we are!?"

Minako put a finger on her cheek. "Who you are…?" she repeated, inquisitively.

"_Skull, you moron! Stop digging our graves!"_ Morgana hissed.

"This is an unfortunate situation…" Yusuke stated. "How should we explain our attire, Joker?"

_In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Besides, If my suspicions are correct, it doesn't really matter if we keep it a secret or not._ "We're not just any old band of phantom thieves," he nonchalantly confessed, a shit-eating smirk plastered on his face—"we're _the_ Phantom Thieves! Or more specifically, the **Phantom Thieves of Hearts!"** He struck a stylish pose, an unused 'Take Your Heart' calling card held up between two of his fingers. "And we're here to steal the hearts of the wicked and reform all of society!"

"You _corrected_ her!?" Ryuji gawked.

"It's Skull's job to be the loud one, Joker!" Morgana groaned.

"Ooh, ten points for style!" Futaba commented.

"Hold on…" Yusuke said. "None of them seem to fully comprehend the significance of what Joker said." Indeed, the four assembled members of SEES looked utterly perplexed. Minako's head was still tilted in confusion; Shinjiro's brows were furrowing with this weird look; Ken had a whole mix of emotions swirling through him; and Yukari just facepalmed, as if it were the dumbest thing in the world _(which I take offense to,_ Ren thought).

"Could it be that you all are unaware of the Phantom Thieves?" Akechi inquired.

Minako looked sheepish. "Uhh…"

"I think I would've heard of something so ridiculous before," Shinjiro snarked.

"Th-That's not a TV show, is it…?" Ken cautiously questioned. "N-Not that I watch 'em, for anything…"

"S-Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about," Yukari apologized.

"No way!" Ann exclaimed. "It's been all over the news and the internet lately! You guys _really_ haven't heard of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts?"

"Sorry, I've got no clue," Minako replied, a little despondent on their behalf. "I watch the news pretty regularly, too."

"Whoa, they really don't know…" Ryuji muttered, at a decent volume for once. "I thought we were internationally famous, though…"

"The news _can_ differ based on prefecture," the resident Detective Prince posited. "But even still…" Even he was baffled on some level, and that was no easy feat. _(That just confirms things 'bout 'em, then.)_

"Well, doesn't this only work to our convenience?" Yusuke brought up. "I believe we should prioritize escaping from here at the moment, anyway."

"You might be correct," Akechi allowed. "Those citizens we hid from were most likely referring to them when they were talking about 'those other criminals'. If that's the case, we oughn't chat here any longer—we should go back to the theater, where it's safer."

"Yeah—aside from _maybe_ Doe, there shouldn't be anything dangerous back there," Ann agreed.

And now the members of SEES were even more out-of-the-loop. "How the hell are we supposed to find a theater in this place?" Shinjiro wanted to know. "We've been looking around this damn place a while and we haven't stumbled upon anything like that."

"Looks like we know more than they do about what's going on right now," Morgana noted.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, but…" Yukari pointed at the literal cat burglar. "What's with the talking cat over there?"

"Yeah, that _is_ weird…" Ken admitted. "I mean, Koromaru can't speak without Aigis to translate…"

"Oh, _now_ you two decide to bring that up!?" Morgana shouted indignantly. "We were fighting next to each other just a second ago!"

The Phantom Thieves sweatdropped.

"Don't worry, he's just a 'lil meow-meow," Ren claimed. "Give him sushi and he'll let you pet him to the ends of time."

"_Hell no!"_ Morgana denied immediately. "I don't care how adorable you make it sound—just, _HELL NO!"_ He groaned. "Great, now I'm exhausted…"

"That may be the case with Morgana, but we should take care to explain ourselves as well," Yusuke said. "We're all Persona-users… I'm sure they'd understand our circumstances."

"We'll do so back at the theater," Ren responded, taking out a Goho-M from his endless Bag of Convenient Thieving Tools™ and preparing to use it. "Heads up, everybody—we're going for a ride!"

Minako nodded. "Alrighty then! Theo, here I come!"

A sigh. "You better tell me what's up with you and him, Arisato, I swear…"

* * *

**This fic's title was derived from the lyrics to **_**Cinematic Tale,**_** the main menu theme for **_**Persona Q2.**_** It's the best song in the game, don't fight me 'bout it.**

_**Persona 3 Portable**_** is unique from the other **_**Persona**_** games (aside from the P2 duology, I guess?) in that it has two separate scenarios and two separate Wild Cards. So I thought it'd be funny if, in **_**Persona Q2,**_** Minato and Minako each had half of their own SEES, from their own universes, join them through the labyrinths. I would've gone for bonus points and split the love interests equally, but I wanted some semblance of balance between character dynamics, so here we are.**

**What can I say, I like my humor with halfway sensible plots.**

**You really gotta feel sorry for Minako in **_**Persona Q2**_** – separated from her friends, feeling isolated from all the others, having to see a visage of her old team from a different timeline… that's rough on her, and it's plainly visible from the third dungeon onward. That's partially why I wanted to write this fic, beyond just the humor potential—to throw her a bone, y'know? She deserves it, especially after being away from the series for so long.**

**This chapter is notably more of a novelization of Minako's introduction plus other SEES members—and well, I gotta start this fic from **_**somewhere.**_** (They'll be more creative things in the future, trust me.) As a whole, this fic'll be a one-shot collection that I occasionally update, 'cause I've got plenty of ideas for what to write about. That, and **_**I love every character in this game and I swear **__**I will treasure them until THE DAY I DIE—**_

**I didn't get the chance to write about it in this chapter, but I'm having the returning cast from **_**Persona Q**_** (the ones from Minato's timeline, anyway) remember their time in the Labyrinth because A) amnesia is overrated and B) it'd make the situation with SEES even **_**more**_** awkward than before. I get that they shouldn't remember because of the whole 'haven in a rift' thing, but eh, I've always thought that was a pretty lame excuse – lemme have some fun.**

**Well, that's all for now – tune in next time for alternate-timeline-and-character-development-related awkwardness on both parts of SEES!**


End file.
